Curious Food for the Kingfisher ( Ceryle alcyoii ). — A few years ago I 
examined the contents of the stomachs of two young Kingfishers ( Ceryle 
alcyon ) , and found, to my surprise, instead of the usual remains of fish, 
fragments of various beetles (Coleoptera) belonging to the families Cara- 
bidie, Dytiscidse, and Scarabteidte, the Carabidae and Scarabteidae being 
exclusively inhabitants of the land. Among the Scarabaeid* an almost 
perfect specimen of Aphodius fumetarius was recognized. 
Mr. A. P. Chadbourne, of Cambridge, Mass., who shot both the birds 
in question, has furnished me with the following information. He says : 
“The Kingfishers were shot at Kennebunksport, Me., on July 14, 1881.' 
They were both young birds, and were shot in the nest with a collecting 
pistol. I observed one oi the adults on the ground in a ploughed field 
neai the river side, but did not shoot it. The young were fully feathered 
and able to fly.” 
I am ignorant as to whether the food of the young of this species has 
been studied by any one else or not, but is it not possible that they may be fed 
regularly by their parents upon insects ?— R. Hayward, Cambridge , Mass. 
Auk, 2, July, 1886. p. 3 // , 
Kingfisher and Pickerel. A kingfisher 
sat on a branch of a dead tree, on the edge 
of Lake Keuka, the other day, near Fair- 
\ child’s Point, watching for his dinner. A 
black-bass fisherman was in Ms boat in the 
cove only two or three rods above the spot 
where the bird was sitting. He quit fishing, j 
and kept his eyes on the kingfisher, curious 
to see the bird dive for its fish when the time 
came. He had to wait but a short time, for 
a fish came within the line of the kingfish- 
er’s vision, and the bird dropped like a stone 
into the water and disappeared beneath the 
! surface. It reappeared almost immediately 
with a fish impaled on its strong, spear-like 
beak. The bird’s body had scarcely come to 
the surface when it disappeared again with 
a suddenness that left no doubt that 
it had been jerked back by something that 
had seized it. The kingfisher did not come 
up again, and the fisherman rowed to the 
spot where it had gone down, to see if he 
could find an explanation of the bird’s 
extraordinary disappearance. A dead 
pickerel about eight inches long was 
floating on the water. A hole through 
its body below the dorsal fin showed plainly 
enough that the pickerel was the fish the 
kingfisher had speared. The fisherman 
drifted about the spot for some time ; but 
being unable to discover anything that 
would solve the mystery of the bird’s disap- 
| pearance, was turning bis boat to row back 
to the cove when something came to the sur- 
face near the shore, twenty-five yards below. 
; The fisherman rowed down to the spot, and 
; to his surprise found an immense pickerel, 
and with it the kingfisher. One of the king- 
fisher’s legs was between the great jaws of 
the pickerel, the latter’s long teeth being set 
through and through it. The kingfisher’s 
loDg, keen bill was thrust through the pick- 
erel’s long body from side to side, six inches 
below the head. The situation explained 
itself. The pickerel had seized the king- 
fisher as it was rising from the water with 
the small fish, and pulled it back beneath 
the surface, expecting to dine on it. The 
[ big bird had instinctively turned and jabbed 
1 its beak through the pickerel, inflicting a 
fatal wound. The pickerel, with the bull- 
dog tenacity of its kind, had kept it3 hold on 
the bird’s leg, and the two had died together 
and floated to the surface. The position of 
the two was not changed, and they have 
| been sent to a Rochester taxidermist to be 
! preserved and mounted as they appear in I 
their death embrace. [N. Y. Sun. I 
T-v. %. w s c t x "£ 4 1 ■' 7 . ^ 
Oyster vs. Kingfisher. 
Some years ago I lived in the little city of 
Annapolis, Md., a great place for the oyster 
and its numerous enemies. During a walk 
along the shores of one of the three creeks 
that surround the place, I witnessed an 
incident that I had read of but never before 
seen, of the oyster’s many adversaries. The 
Kingfisher, in this locality, isn’t the least, by 
any means. Many a fine oyster falls victim to 
the rapacious appetite of this king of fishers 
during the sunny hours of a summer day. 
Walking along the shore looking out for 
anything that might turn up, I noticed some- 
thing black fluttering and screaming on the 
shore opposite me across the water. Failing 
at that distance in finding out what it was, I 
procured a boat and crossed over. I was sur- 
prised to find a full-grown Kinfisher, evidently 
hurt, lying on the sand. I ran up to it and 
attempted to pick it up, but found that it was 
attached to something in the sand. Closer 
examination discovered its bill held fast 
between the shells of an oyster. I soon liber- 
ated it and found the tongue quite black from 
non-circulation of the blood, which showed 
that it must have been held prisoner for some 
time. This rogue was evidently caught thus : 
At flood tide the oyster opens up to receive 
its food brought up by the rising water to the 
shore, and at the first sign of the ebb, closes 
promptly. Our rogue went to work just a 
little late and found the oyster in the act of 
closing up for the night. The bird was quite 
weak from its struggles to free itself and 
rested for some time in my hand before it 
took advantage of its timely rescue. 
H. C. Hopkins. 
Baltimore, Md. 
0.& O Vol.17, July, 1892 p.109 
Birds of Dead Diver Region, Me. F. H. O. 
76. Ceryle alcyon, (Belted Kingfisher). Nested 
in the banks of the Sandy River. 4 Saw a pair 
each year in August about Tim Pond. Also saw 
several while fishing on Tim Brook in the woods, 
far from any congenial nesting site. They evi- 
dently had an epicure’s taste for fingerling trout. 
